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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Conserving Academia: Less fun, More not fun

Here at HeadyGooBalls, we try and supply a constant flow of heady information about whats poppin' at college campuses across the nation. A lot has been written on turncoat David Horowitz and his crusade to pass an "Academic Bill of Rights" into law (a Chronicle of Higher Education profile here).

Much has been written on the Bill already so I won't go into details. Essentially, Horowitz and college conservatives share a suspicion that their views are not wanted nor respected in academia. While it is true that most professors are liberal (as noted here), this is not because of a vast left-wing conspiracy (or is it?). It is not by chance that when hiring the new Biology professor, the dean picked the one without the Jesus-fish on his KIA.

I am having trouble coming to terms with this idea. As expected, the left blogosphere (of which I beg acceptance) bashed Horowitz in the nuts. To me, I have trouble promoting something like the Fairness Doctrine (which would force television news to include equal conseravtive and liberal viewpoints) and denouncing something like the Academic Bill of Rights (which would force universities to balance their staffs with equal neo-cons and hippies). It does sound like, however, that conservatives are scared of campuses growing increasingly liberal. It may be a legitimate threat that finds its way into Congress depending on the success Horowitz's campus tour. Either way, Horowitz's group Students for Academic Freedom have a pretty funny forum on their website. Its a message board where students can leave posts about times they were discrimnated against for their politics. My [new]favorite complaint comes from a conservagina @ Ohio State who writes, "I know the paper was pretty much great because I spell checked it and proofred it twice. I got an D- just because the professor hates families and thinks its okay to be gay." Did he proofred this twice because proofred is spelt rongh.